► We round up the most interesting cars Guangzhou had to offer
► Insane modifications, outlandish off-roaders and countless EVs
► Plus, a couple of genuinely intriguing UK-bound family cars
A few years ago, Chinese motor shows were a bit of a joke. They were the automotive equivalents of a dodgy Camden market, teeming with unconvincing knock-off European cars and distasteful aftermarket modifications. And, while those attitudes still linger, I can see signs the Chinese car industry is maturing.
This year’s Guangzhou Motor Show was a big deal. It was the event’s 12th anniversary – and it not only attracted brands from its home market, but also the heavy-hitting captains of the automotive industry, desperate to flog their cars to China’s emerging middle class.
Audi, BMW, Ford, Honda, Kia, Lexus, Mazda, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Volvo all had stands at the show, many offering a dedicated line-up of cars specifically tailored to the needs of the Chinese market.
But I’m not really interested in what the established car brands are planning for China. I’m intrigued by what China is planning for the world. Scroll down for my round-up of the most interesting cars I found at the show, some of which have already been earmarked for export.
Slammed Leapmotor B05
We’re starting off strong. Leapmotor launched the B05 hatchback (known as the Lafa 5 in China) in September 2025, with the aim of stealing some of the MG4 EV’s market share. It’s pitched as cool and sporty – and, in an effort to show its commitment to that market, Leapmotor created this Stance Nation homage for the Guangzhou Show.
The changes for the show car are quite extensive. The brand started by taking an angle grinder to car’s the roof before fitting some strengthening bars in the rear to try and claw back the lost rigidity. It then dropped the chassis on its guts and fitted a set of split rim alloys with some outrageous camber. Obviously, it’ll never see production, but it’s nice to see the modifying scene is alive and well in China.
DongFeng Mhero 1
Weird name. Interesting car. The Mhero 1 is an off-road focused SUV with four electric motors, 335mm of ground clearance, a 900mm wading depth and – wait for it – 1073bhp. That means, even though it weighs about 200kg more than your average hippo, DongFeng reckons it can get from 0–62mph in just 4.2 seconds. That’s daft.
But the Mhero 1’s battery is even dafter. It’s an enormous 142kWh unit which, for context, is three and half times the size of the entry-level Renault 5’s battery. Despite its huge energy reserves, though, it can only muster a maximum WLTP driving range of around 280 miles. Probably because it has the same drag coefficient as a fully laden skip.
BYD Seal 06 GT ‘Black Myth: Wukong’
The Seal 06 GT is the latest offering in BYD’s oddly extensive list of cars named after aquatic mammals. It’s a hatchback designed to rival everything from the MG4 EV to the Cupra Born and, like those cars, it’s available with a performance-focused powertrain. The top-spec version has two electric motors, 416bhp and a 0–62mph time of 4.9 seconds.
These specs aren’t what caught my attention, though. It was the Max Power body kit and wild livery that stopped me in my tracks. As it turns out, BYD is the official automotive partner for the Chinese video game developer, Game Science – and the character on the side of this Seal 06 GT is the protagonist from its latest game, Black Myth: Wukong.
In the game, players encounter more than 100 inch-perfect Chinese landmarks, which the Game Science devs spent four years painstakingly digitalising. The project was as much a conservation effort as it is a piece of entertainment – and BYD has committed to helping Game Science digitalise even more Chinese landmarks to aid future restoration projects. This one-off is promoting the project.
JAC De-fine S Concept
JAC is best known for making pick-up trucks and commercial vehicles but, in 2024, the brand wanted to prove to the world that it was more than just a one-trick pony. This was what it conjured up. A four-seat, four-door, fully electric supercar with a 1000-volt electrical system and a three-motor powertrain producing 590kW (almost 800bhp).
That means 0–62mph in 2.3 seconds, which doesn’t seem that impressive in this brave new world of sub-two-second-to-62mph electric supercars. But again, the specs aren’t what caught my attention. I took a picture of the Define-S for its styling. To my eye, it looks like a mash-up of a Ferrari Daytona and a Jaguar XJ220 – and they’re two of the prettiest cars in the world as far as I’m concerned. Now all JAC needs to do is build it.
Firefly
Firefly is one of Nio’s spin-off brands – and it’s hoping to steal some of the MINI Cooper E’s market share. This funky little hatchback has a 41kWh battery pack, a maximum range of around 200 miles and a 0–62mph time of 8.1 seconds. That’s competitive against the 36.6kWh battery and 180-mile range you get from the cheapest MINI.
The brand is gearing up to break the UK market, too. You can already buy one in Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands for between €23,000 and €29,000 – and right-hand drive versions are currently rattling down the company’s production lines for the Singaporean market. I reckon we’ll see it on UK roads before the end of 2026.
Sadly, the car in the image above isn’t what the Firefly looks like when it leaves the company’s factory. It’s a rally-inspired concept, built by the tuning company Active Planet Walk to help publicise the new car. It has a widebody kit, rally wheels and tyres, a massive carbon rear wing and a butch front splitter.
There’s a chance APW will build you one, too. The firm is currently taking expressions of interest on its website – and I hope it can make the numbers stack up. If all EV’s looked this wild, I could get behind our electric future.
Read our full Firefly hatchback review
Zeekr 007 Performance
For legal reasons, this car’s name has nothing to do with a well-known British spy. And with that disclaimer out of the way, allow me to rhyme off some specs.
The 007 Performance is, as its name suggests, a fast version of the Zeekr 007 saloon. It has two electric motors that deliver a combined output of 637bhp and 810Nm of torque. Zeekr says that’s enough for a 0–62mph time of 2.84 seconds which, rather humorously, makes it faster than the 2.9-second sprint offered by the Tesla Model 3 Performance.
Not for the first time in this round up, I took a picture of this car for its looks. The composite black trim caught my attention for its unusual fish-scale pattern rather than a conventional fibre weave. Plus in that yellow, if you squint, the front almost looks like a Ferrari 12Cilindri.
ROX Adamas
I smell a lawsuit brewing. I don’t think ROX could have made the Adamas look any more like a Defender if Land Rover gave it permission to build the car under licence. It’s uncannily familiar, right down to the layout of the interior and even the shape of the door mirrors.
What’s worse is that it’s shamelessly targeting the same market as the Defender for a fraction of the cost. The Adamas is already on sale in the UAE for between £58,000 and £72,000. Prices for an equivalent Defender 130 start at £84,000 in the UK.
For the money, you get seven-level height adjustable air suspension, a 1.5-litre range-extended electric powertrain and what ROX calls ‘dual-motor full-time four-wheel drive.’ It also has a wading depth of 770mm, an as-yet undisclosed maximum towing capacity and approach, breakover and departure angles of 27.5, 24.6, and 27.9 degrees respectively.
Those stats suggest you’ll sacrifice a lot of off-road capability and versatility by choosing the Adamas over the Defender (which can happily plough though nearly a metre of water). But most modern Defender buyers take their cars off-road so seldomly that it’s probably not a huge issue. I guess it comes down to whether you want your car to look tough or actually be tough.
Maextro S800
This one was another case of mistaken identity. No, it’s not a Bentley or a Maybach. It’s a copycat called the Maextro S800. It’s a joint project between Huawei and JAC Group that hopes to corner the luxury car market with oodles of trinkets and attractive pricing.
Once again, this car is already on sale in the UAE, where it costs the equivalent of £104,000. That’s about the same kind of money you’ll spend on an entry-level BMW i7 – but the i7 isn’t anywhere near as well equipped as the S800.
The S800 gets automatic doors, an enormous infotainment system that spans the width of the dashboard (1448mm if you were wondering), business class-style chairs in the rear, a TV-sized projector screen that descends from the roof and a refrigerator in the boot that can chill your champagne down to -6 degrees. You even get tiny pixel lights hidden in the door handles that reflect onto your palm when you open the door. It’s excess manifest.
Leapmotor A10
Yes, I know it’s another Leapmotor. But this one is far more relevant to the UK than the modified one-off at the top of the page. Meet the new A10. It’s a pure-electric B-segment SUV designed to rival the Ford Puma Gen-E – and, if Leapmotor can get the price right, there’s a chance it could knock the UK’s best-seller off its perch.
Leapmotor hasn’t yet confirmed all its specifications, but we know the A10 measures 4200mm long, 1800mm wide and 1600mm tall. That makes it slightly shorter and a bit taller than a Puma Gen-E. The brand also says it’ll have a ‘class-leading’ range of 500km (310 miles), although it’s worth mentioning that figure was achieved under less stringent Chinese test protocols.
In any case, if Leapmotor can repeat the formula of the T03, B10 and C10, it’ll give its European rivals more reasons to worry. Its current models are screamingly affordable and surprisingly good quality when compared to their Chinese equivalents. I’ve got high hopes for this one. Watch this space.
Audi 100
This one caught me off guard. Amongst the sea of aerodynamically optimised electric vehicles was this rather confused-looking Audi 100. It was there to show the heritage behind Audi’s China-only EV spin-off brand, AUDI, which was celebrating its one-year anniversary at the show. I should have been paying attention to AUDI’s latest EV on the stand behind it, but I got wrapped up in the 100’s refreshingly small stature.
I’m quite vocal about my opinions on the size of modern cars. I think SUVs that are primarily designed for the road are stupid and cumbersome. But this little Audi was my antidote to the plague – and it reminded me of just how badly the car industry has lost its way.
It’s small enough for the town, but still big enough to have a spacious cabin. Its economical footprint and low-slung styling also give it a kerb weight of around a tonne, which means means it won’t chew through consumables as quickly. And it looks cool because it’s a coupe.
Smooth out that blunt front end, drop a modern engine under the bonnet and I reckon it’d be more fuel efficient than most modern cars, simply because it doesn’t tower 12 feet off the ground and it isn’t weighed down with more tech than your average Apple Store. If we’re ever going use cars to beat climate change, we need to start looking backwards rather than forwards. We were barking up vaguely the right tree in the 1970s.